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The Ancient Magus' Bride Manga Gets New Anime With New Studio (Updated)

The official Twitter account for Kore Yamazaki's The Ancient Magus' Bride (Mahō Tsukai no Yome) manga announced on Wednesday that the manga is inspiring a new anime project, starting with an original anime disc (OAD) series titled Mahō Tsukai no Yome: Nishi no Shōnen to Seiran no Kishi (The Ancient Magus' Bride: The Boy From the West and the Knight of the Mountain Haze). The staff describes the OAD series as the "first part" of the new anime project.

The three-episode OAD will be bundled with the limited editions of the manga's 16th, 17th, and 18th volumes. The 16th volume will ship on September 10. The 17th volume will ship on March 10, 2022, and the 18th volume will ship on September 10, 2022.

Yamazaki herself pens the story of the OAD, which is set some time before Chise enrolls in The College. The story begins with Spriggan visiting Chise and Elias' home, bringing news of a strange new Wild Hunt. Another part of the story will focus on Gabriel, a boy who has tired of parting with friends and living in an unfamiliar land and circumstances. He will part the veil that hides him from the world of magic.

Kazuaki Terasawa (Anonymous Noise episode director) is directing the anime at Studio Kafka, a new animation studio established specifically for the OAD project. Aya Takaha returns from the television anime to pen the script alongside Yoko Yonaiyama (Uma Musume Pretty Derby episode scriptwriter). Hirotaka Katō returns as character designer from the previous anime, and Junichi Matsumoto also returns to compose the music.

The other staff members include:

• Chief Animation Director: Kōhei Tokuoka
• Color Design: Yuko Kobari
• Art Design: Seiki Tamura
• Director of Photography: Mayo Suzuki
• CGI Director: Katsuaki Miyaji
• Editing: Daisuke Imai
• Music Production Flying Dog
• Audio Director: Shōji Hata
• Sound Effects: Noriko Izumo
• Audio Production: Sound Team Don Juan

Yamazaki posted an illustration to celebrate the new anime's announcement on the Twitter account for the manga.

The manga previously inspired a television anime that premiered in Japan in 2017. Crunchyroll streamed the series in Japanese with English subtitles, and Funimation streamed an English dub for the series. The manga also inspired a prequel original video anime (OVA) series titled The Ancient Magus' Bride: Those Awaiting a Star in 2017. Funimation released the first 12 episodes of the television series with the OVA on home video in January 2019, and the company released the remaining 12 episodes on home video in April 2019.

Yamazaki launched The Ancient Magus' Bride manga in Mag Garden's Monthly Comic Blade magazine in 2013 but the magazine ceased publication in September 2014. The manga then moved to the publisher's Monthly Comic Garden magazine. Mag Garden published the 14th compiled book volume in September 2020. Seven Seas Entertainment shipped the manga's 13th volume in October 2020. The company released two supplement books for the manga in 2017.

The Ancient Magus' Bride: The Golden Yarn (Kinshi-hen) and The Ancient Magus' Bride: The Silver Yarn (Ginshi-hen) also shipped in Japan in 2017. Both books contain short stories written by Yamazaki herself, as well as other authors such as Yuichiro Higashide (Fate/Apocrypha) and Yoshinobu Akita (Sorcerous Stabber Orphen). Seven Seas Entertainment released The Ancient Magus' Bride: The Golden Yarn in December 2018, and it released The Ancient Magus' Bride: The Silver Yarn in March 2019.

Yamazaki previously revealed that she plans to launch a new manga series this spring or summer.

Update: The 17th volume will ship on March 10, 2022, and the 18th volume will ship on September 10, 2022. Source: Amazon Japan (link 2) via Ota-Suke

Source: The Ancient Magus' Bride OAD's website, Comic Natalie